Grand-prix winners of each category will be interviewed on their award-winning dolls!
◆Natural Beauty Category Grand Prix : Jabberwocks
1. Your dolls are going to be exhibited at VenusFort, what aspects of your design would you like people to focus on?
- le jardin de maman
We worked pretty hard on little details like the our illustrated landscapes from fond memories and our petite diorama. It would makes us really happy if people notice these minute parts of the piece.
- Happy Little Candle
If you look at her when you're hungry and eyes squinted she might look like a real cake...maybe. The pedestal she is standing on is also designed to look like a cake! We wanted her to look like she entered a showcase at a cake shop.
2. The beauty contest has successfully come to a close, can you describe your feelings about the contest?
Making custom Blythe is really fun but it can be a real hermetic experience, so meeting people at the event and socializing was a really great time. We were also so stimulated by all the awesome work by all the other artists. It was our first time to be able to look at these dolls in first person so it was a domino effect of excitement and emotional involvement. We have so many ideas for new customs now so we are going to go for it! Thank you so much for the wonderful event!
3. You spent a lot of time and effort when creating your doll, and coming to the Beauty Contest, what was your thoughts about the charity when you were applying?
We are still young and don't have much knowledge in customs so we are really honored to be part of this charity. We heard from Junko that it was a charity for organ replacement patients, thinking about the important people in our lives we really felt strongly about this charity event. It makes us happy to know that our work is helping somebody out there!
4. Where did your idea come from for your doll?
- le jardin de maman
We wanted to make the doll like a girl surrounded by roses from here fondest memories. We had an image in our heads of a trellis covered with wildly blooming roses. It began from that image and we worked on that idea by shaping a victorian style crinoline in to trellis.
- Happy Little Candle
Personally I really like accessories that are shaped like sweets so I really wanted to make a dress that looked like a cake! With that in mind we started making the dress, we just didn't want to be a regular cake so we too a slice out of the cake!
5. What are the things that you want to convey to the audience through your doll? Is there anything that you want people to understand looking at your doll?
Blythes are all made out of one mold but each doll has their own characteristics and personality. At the same time they are all different and yet they are all connected. Like people every individual lives their own life but like Blythe we are all connected. We passionately hope the common interest in Blythe and the love of Blythe can connect all kinds of people to congregate and spread that circle. In that corner of the circle I would love to live my life happily playing with Blythe everyday.
◆Special Beauty Category Grand Prix : *Soleil*
1. Your dolls are going to be exhibited at VenusFort, what aspects of your design would you like people to focus on?
We think that we made a girl that's very expressive, it would be great if people can admire her from different angles and observe her different expressions.
2. The beauty contest has successfully come to a close, can you describe your feelings about the contest?
We received a lot of praise and encouragement during the event and we met many fantastic people. We're really thankful for being able to be apart of this event!
3. You spent a lot of time and effort when creating your doll, and coming to the Beauty Contest, what was your thoughts about the charity when you were applying?
In many ways she means a lot to us so when we were applying we were going back and forth in our heads. Now we feel happy to think that our doll can make any sort of small difference being auctioned for charity.
4. Where did your idea come from for your doll?
We wanted to make a precocious but lovable girl with accessories made out of roses. She's gone through many illustrations and conceptions to get to the final design that she is now.
5. What are the things that you want to convey to the audience through your doll? Is there anything that you want people to understand looking at your doll?
We've made many friends just by having the common interest of loving Blythe. It really didn't matter what age you were and where you came from, I feel like its those kind of meetings that are the most important. I hope everybody will have that chance to meet new friends.
◆Petite Beauty Category Grand Prix : The Queen of Hearts' Teatime
1. Your dolls are going to be exhibited at VenusFort, what aspects of your design would you like people to focus on?
Aside from the story, each doll had its own set of themes and we tried to express those themes the best we could. The Queen of Hearts' theme was selfishness, evil, and flower like. The little girl's theme was the unchanging spirit and power of a young girl. The Mad Hatter expresses the dark side of the soul, a fraud that longs for freedom, I wanted to especially accentuate "madness" for the doll. The themes were very important to the design of the doll, for the mad hatter we put a scar on his left eye and that is covered with an eye patch, he's also only wearing one shoe. I would love it if people can take a close look at these imperfections and motifs that aren't as noticeable at first.
2. The beauty contest has successfully come to a close, can you describe your feelings about the contest?
I am really grateful for being a part of this event. I really felt encouraged meeting with artists and fans from all over the world that love Blythe from the bottom of their hearts. I felt like our perception of the world just got wider. The event was just a blast in general!
3. You spent a lot of time and effort when creating your doll, and coming to the Beauty Contest, what was your thoughts about the charity when you were applying?
I was surprised that my work that came from a simple thought can actually help people. I hope that the love will spread to many more people through the charity.
4. Where did your idea come from for your doll?
I was trying to figure out a way to create a house while using little lodges and through many conceptions it ended up becoming this type of world in the end. With the Petite Blythes I was able to express the story pretty clearly so I am pretty happy about that. I had a lot of fun building it, too.
5. What are the things that you want to convey to the audience through your doll? Is there anything that you want people to understand looking at your doll?
This is what I want to convey... I feel like no matter how old I am I can always return to being a young girl. Moving away from social berriers I feel that all people, young and old, men or women can all feel the joy of being a young girl.
We as humans hide the selfish and dark side of our soul, if we keep on doing that I feel that we'll get sick of ourselves and the world. If we could all just be ourselves saying how we feel about our world will be such an interesting place. The Queen of Hearts' space provides an unsuppressed evil to be freed from the individual and being given that permission we can all return to become these young maidens.
